truth and lies

fine feather
steveston, bc

One of the most interesting instructive moments of this past weekend with Bryan Peterson took place at the Britannia Heritage Shipyard in Steveston. He spoke about the controversy over Robert Capa’s photo “The Falling Soldier” and how a picture is one big lie filled with truths. Those of you who are familiar with Bryan’s books will know that he does not shrink from taking creative license with his images and he invites his students to do the same. In a story from a previous workshop in Oregon, he recounted how he planted a leaf on a rock in a stream where the group had stopped to take pictures. Some students were aghast that they would be taking a photograph of something that wasn’t “natural” and a debate ensued. How did they know that there wasn’t a leaf there before and it was washed away by the water or lifted by the wind? Long story short, a little while after the group had finished taking their photographs, along came two other visitors to the park. They spotted the leaf on the rock and immediately recognized a great photographic opportunity never knowing that the leaf was placed there by Bryan.

All this as a prelude to the image in today’s posting. In this photograph, Bryan took a feather that he found and placed it in between the blades of grass. He moved the grass behind to clear the background, then took a spray bottle filled with water and sprayed the feather and grass. We also used a reflector to diffuse the strong western light. When you look at this image you probably know that there has to be more and there is. When I brought the image into Photoshop, I decided that I didn’t love the yellow light so I processed the image to create a cool blue background which seemed more in keeping with the sense of loss and entrapment in this photograph.

The image is titled “Fine Feather” after the Aesop fable “The Jay and the Peacock“. In that story a Jay finds feathers fallen from moulting Peacocks. He ties them to his tail and struts towards the Peacocks but is soon discovered as a cheat and is promptly defrocked of his borrowed plummage. He retreats to the other Jays who were equally displeased and tell him “It is not only fine feathers that make fine birds”.

I really like this image created with my new 300 mm f/4 lens and two extension tubes. What I’d like to know is how others see it. Do you like it less or not at all because it has been constructed rather than being natural? Is it a lie or is there enough truth? Does it even make a difference to you? I’d love to hear your comments.

P.S. I decided to try my hand at a calendar wallpaper with this image. I used a great calendar PSD file over at David duChemin’s blog to create this wallpaper. Thanks David!